Stories about Citizen Media from June, 2014
French Startup Companies Want to Make Your Home Smarter
Want a smart thermostat to control your home's heating? Or one that is hooked up to the Internet and measures your home's concentration of CO2? French start-ups are on it.
Mapping the 567 Ebola Cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
On June 16, 49 new Ebola cases, 12 of them deadly, were reported by the WHO. Bart Janssens, director of operations of The international NGO Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF)) released a statement saying that: The epidemic is out of control, with the appearance of new sites in...
Jamaica: Beauty & the Beast
The issue is that there is an idea in Jamaica of who is beautiful and who isn’t…that this idea of beauty is, to a large extent, a racially constructed one. Kei Miller recounts a heartbreaking story of the dark side of beauty pageants and contends that the Miss Jamaica franchise...
The Female Perspective on the 2014 World Cup
Dalia Gutmann reviews the football players she's had a crush on from 1990 FIFA World Cup Italy to the current one in Brazil on the website OhLaLá!. After mentioning her favorite one in each of these sporting events, she confesses: Como notarán, la única razón por la que puedo registrar a un...
Jamaica: The Colours of the FIFA World Cup
Active Voice posts a compilation of tweets about the FIFA World Cup in which “race, religion, colour, ethnicity, nationality, all came in for comment”.
Russian Bureaucracy’s Race to Police the Web
"...the most frightening truth may be that Russia’s law enforcement agencies don’t always wait for lawmakers to grant them formal authority when it comes to policing the Internet."
Costa Rica's Pre-Columbian Stone Spheres Declared World Heritage
Four archaeological sites with pre-Columbian stone spheres located in the canton of Osa, Puntarenas, in Costa Rica were included in UNESCO's World Heritage List. The decision was announced on Monday, June 23, 2014, during the 38th session of the World Heritage Committee in Doha, Qatar. Costa Rican former president Laura...
Mexican Bloggers Support Their National Team
Samantha Martínez is blogging on Tarjeta Azul about the day-to-day at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. This time, she shares her passion for her country's national team, Mexico, and sums up the rivalry between this team and the local one, and shows her support for the Mexican crew:...
Alexander Sodiqov Is Not the First Person to Be Arrested in Tajikistan for Doing His Job
The Tajik government's arrest of Alexander Sodiqov for conducting academic research in Tajikistan's troubled GBAO region echoes the arrest of a BBC journalist in the same country three years ago.
The Inca Road Is a New World Heritage Site
For the first time in the 40 years of World Heritage convention, six countries united to submit a joint application to designate a cultural site as world heritage. Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru requested that the Incan Road be included as a cultural heritage site. The announcement was made in...
Twitter's Game of Cat and Mouse in Russia
A pattern is emerging in the relationship between the Kremlin and Twitter, where Moscow makes sweeping demands of the website and then touts the resulting compromise as a victory.
Stop Using Growth as an Excuse to Pollute, African Activists Say
The impact of 2014 World Environment Day on Africa: The need for growth on the continent does not absolve nations from protecting the earth, African advocates say.
Australian Shock and Outrage at Egyptian Sentencing of Al Jazeera Journalists
Journalists have led the way on social media in expressing Australians' shock over the prison sentences for the Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt.
Debunking Rumors that Algerian Fans Burned Down a Church in Lyon, France after World Cup Win
On June 22 at the World Cup 2014 in Brazil, Algeria defeated South Korea 4-2 to keep its chance of qualifying to the knock-out round alive. Scenes of joy were numerous in Algeria [fr] but also in France where a dynamic Algerian community resides. The joy was tempered by rumors that...
5 Places in Brazil Where People Were Protesting, Not Cheering During the World Cup Kick-Off
Not everyone in Brazil was excited to see the World Cup. Groups around the country staged protests against the money spent on the tournament instead of on the people.
Chile Will Build the Biggest Telescope on Earth
In Fotones Valley at Cerro Armazones in the Atacama desert, Chile, the construction for what will become the largest optical telescope in the world, with a diameter of 39 meters, are underway. In 2010, the European Southern Observatory Board chose that location in the Chilean desert for the future E-ELT.2. It will be...
Sharing with Great-Grandparents
On the website OhLaLá!, Inés Saínz remembers her great grandmother on her blog De la mamá (From mom) and reflects on inter-generational sharing now that she is a mother of two: La manera que la nonna tenía de demostrar cariño era a través de la comida. Ahí sí se excedía. Podía pasarse...
Russian Phone Prankster Fools Belarus Dictator
After Lukashenko found out he was a victim of a prank, he apparently gave his security apparatus "a week" to find Vovan and bring him to some form of justice.
Russians Amused by National Team World Cup Performance
"Everyone is on the Russian team's case, but the real horror is the performance by a team that consists of Real Madrid and Barcelona players."
Why Some People in Mexico Are Happy to See Michoacán’s Governor Resign
The Governor of Michoacan, a Mexican state besieged by violence, announced he will retire for health reasons.
The United States’ Gender Pay Gap Through the Lens of Social Media
"A society that undervalues half its population is bound to underachieve."
